Napster just isn't cool any more

[Steve]

There was a time when you could freely (and illegally) obtain music from Napster, but oh how things have changed. Now it is a pay-for service and it would seem that those music loving creatures known as students are actually avoiding Napster. From The Register:

Not a single University of Rochester student admitted to buying a song via Napster during the Fall 2004 semester. Instead, eight per cent of the students turned to the likes of iTunes and Musicmatch to buy songs they enjoy. That's an ominous sign for a company spending millions to seed the university market with music in the hopes of unseating Apple as the clear leader in online music.

It looks like no matter what Napster do, they just can't get the customers. Perhaps iTunes is just trendier?

[Twigman]

Napster only lets you access your songs as long as you keep your subscription up. I know one person at uni who subscribes to napster.
And loads that subscribe to iTunes.
Napster was "cool" with people who were happy with get music for free. These people have now moved onto p2p networks, bittorrent, newsgroups etc.
The people who are willing to pay for music just go for iTunes because no doubt they have got an ipod.
Musicmatch? People actually use that? oh right...
I was under the impression MSN music was pretty popular too.

iPod owners are free to add their existing CD collections and those of friends to their device at no cost

I think this is the way most music is shared in my experience. One person will buy a CD and pass it round for everyone to rip etc. Also people will just copy friends music from their computers, rather than downloading it off a nobody on the internet.

[guru]

i had a little moan a few weeks back about napsters recent service here:

http://www.forums.guru4u.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=996